The base fit wheel covers make it awfully hard to get a traditional tire inflator clamp (the kind where the clamping piece is 90 degrees from the hose) to latch onto the tire's valve stem. The wheel covers just do not allow enough room around the tire's valve stem to get the clamp on.

Does anybody know of some kind of accessory that is inline with the hose (as opposed to 90 degrees from the hose) that I can fit onto the clamp and fix this problem?

 

There are tire valve extensions available at your friendly neighborhood autoparts store. But I think I'd look for a different shaped inflator if practical.

 

^^^
He beat me to the post. If you go for the valve stem extenders (available in several lengths- get some that solve the problem but that don't stick out a mile from the wheel), they are available in plastic and metal construction. Don't buy the plastic ones. They will get screwed up by the filler hose chucks.

 

Or, you could just pop the cover off.

 

^^ 2x on THIS ^^

Make sure that the hub cap is actually mounted on correctly when reinstalling/checking tire pressure to. There is an indent in either the retaining wire or the face of the hub cap to go around the valve stem.